It’s party time! The last lap of the elections is here and the pun on party is highly appropriate, with parties slogging it out over issues in a party atmosphere with DJs, official songs and colourful, loud meetings. As a young boy I loved parties, especially when we used to blow soap bubbles, and all of us ran around trying to burst as many as possible. This campaign (party) is no exception, as bubbles are being burst galore, leaving behind a treacherous ground on which the bubble blowers cannot but slip to their fall. Just this past week, we have seen no fewer than three bubbles bursting, to the embarrassment of their proponents.
Bubble Burst No 1 – The coalition myth. Our system and constitution have no provision for a coalition, so the drumming in of this concept is a puerile attempt repeating it enough so as to make it credible. The MLP are obviously going along with this bubble! It is only they who stand to gain, as with AD eroding away at PN’s votes, MLP might just achieve a relative majority, and gain absolute power for the next five years. What do Alternattiva stand to gain if this hoax is believed? A relative increase of the votes that they get at the expense of the Nationalist Party, which increase will absolutely not translate into any sort of parliamentary representation or say in government, but will at least give them the honorary face saver. They are even unashamedly using the word Bidla in direct harmony with the MLP campaign! The only bidla that they are promoting is from a PN government to an MLP government. Sorry, but the massaging of your egos is just not worth that!
Bubble burst No 2 – Re opening negotiations on our EU Treaty. This statement is shrouding the true face of Alfred Sant’s Labour vis-à-vis the EU, namely that it never got past the party’s front teeth, let alone its throat, that the Maltese people overwhelmingly voted for membership. It is also an outright pipe dream! The dangerous part is that Sant knows it is such, and is willingly propagating something he knows is unachievable. The categorical replies from spokespersons within the Commission to a local journalist, soon gave the lie to that particular empty promise. A new beginning, my foot!
Bubble burst No 3 – Backdated fines over spring hunting. This particular bubble has been blown up ad nauseam by the AD, most vociferously by that never Maltese MP, almost Maltese MEP, but for some time Italian MP, Arnold Cassola. He has been working up his perceived crowd of faithful (and gullible, he must think) taxpayers into a frenzy over the fines to be paid out of our pockets over hunting. He has called the government “cheeky” and “arrogant” for repeatedly assuring the public that no fines can be imposed on us over what has happened to date. The facts, as researched and published independently by a local English language Sunday publication, have shown beyond a doubt that the government has been correct and honest in its statements. This has, however, proven Alternattiva (Cassola, mainly) to be, at best, misinformed! Quite frankly, I cannot understand this in someone who spent all those years at the heart of matters in Brussels, in a senior position with the European greens. If he is misinformed, shame on him for not bothering to check, and if he knows and is still saying what he knows to be false, double shame! Is this the ‘breath of fresh air’ you’re promising? Doesn’t smell quite right to me.
The examples above speak for themselves but achieve more weight when seen against the backdrop of the government’s behaviour while in office, and even during these early days of the campaign. Responsibility has been the key word throughout, and the campaign designed by the PN’s strategists is aiming to bring that out, and present it for public assessment. What more responsible statement than that made by PM Gonzi, when he said that the election is a time when it is the electorate who have the onus of examining his government and deciding whether or not it passes the test.
The people have the power to test, and his government is being tested. What a contrast to the diametrically opposed statement that this is a testing time for the Maltese people! These contrasts are reflective of a deeper undercurrent and vision. While Gonzi sees himself as a servant of, and answerable to, the people, Sant somehow feels that it is his right to get power now, and the people are being tested on whether they can hand it to him.
I, for one, would rather fail that test.